


Want You More Than A Melody

by WeAreTheLuckyOnes



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff, M/M, Original Characters - Freeform, meet cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:55:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29321262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WeAreTheLuckyOnes/pseuds/WeAreTheLuckyOnes
Summary: Five times Benny meets Dean at a business he doesn’t actually work at, and one time he meets Dean at a business that he actually does.Or, the extended meet-cute.
Relationships: Benny Lafitte/Dean Winchester
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18
Collections: SPN Family Valentine's





	Want You More Than A Melody

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sam_Lee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sam_Lee/gifts).



> A Valentine’s gift for the lovely Rufus, AKA Sam_Lee. Happy Valentine’s Rufus!
> 
> Title from Sunflower Vol 6 by Harry Styles. The vibe of this fic is the entirety of Harry Styles’ Fine Line album and I don’t know why.
> 
> Beta’d by the amazing makepeavelovejoy who learnt with me (rather rudely) that there are two types of quotation marks (because they use single and I use double) and that the English language is stupid.

-*-*-*-*-*-

One

-*-*-*-*-*-

_What’s Up, Buttercup_ is a florist that sits on the corner of Benny’s street, a block up from Benny’s new apartment. The building is blindingly yellow and the windows’ frames and sills have been painted with collages of different kinds of flowers. There’s a group of papers taped to the inside of one of the windows and when Benny gets close enough to read them they say, ‘ _What’s an amnesiac sailor’s favourite flower? Forget-Me-Knots._ ’ Benny snorts at it for a second, before he lets himself inside the shop, a bell tinkling above him as the door swings open.

Benny doesn’t like flowers that much, mostly because he has hayfever and being around them makes his eyes go all puffy, but also because they remind him of his mother. They make him sad. She had loved flowers; she had a garden full of them. He’d sit outside with her for hours; gardening, reading, and playing. She taught him about each and every flower in her garden; how to plant them, and take care of them and their meanings. After her death he couldn’t bear to be inside of her garden for any period of time, and with no one taking care of it became overgrown and dilapidated, which made being there a thousand times worse. He’s long since healed from the trauma, but he never goes out of his way to be around flowers. 

But today? Today is different. Today is special. His first grandchild has been born.

Eesa, his daughter-in-law has just given birth to a tiny little girl with dark hair and dark eyes. Benny can put aside his discomfort to buy Eesa her favourite flowers. It’s the least he can do.

Eesa loves sunflowers. She covers her home in them and their likeness. He'd always wondered if it was a bit obsessive but they made her happy, and he wanted nothing less for his kids than their absolute happiness.

Benny had moved to Colorado for Eesa and his kid, Lou, to be there for them and help them with Elizabeth. He’s the only family the both of them have. All of Benny’s own family is gone. Lou’s mother left as soon as they were born, and Eesa’s religious family disowned her for becoming engaged to a non-Muslim non-binary person who they’d only ever see as a woman. 

Benny had almost paid Eesa’s family a visit after he found out. No one misgendered or treated his kids like shit without consequences. Lou and Eesa had barely managed to stop him from driving all the way from Louisiana to Michigan and doing something that would send him to jail.

The smell inside is strong and it makes his nose itch. He’d taken antihistamines in preparation of visiting the florist and he hopes he gave it enough time to work. There’s a man in a flannel and jeans (a look Benny’s sure is uncommon in most florists) sitting behind the counter with his nose in his phone. He looks up when Benny shuts the door. Benny makes a bee-line for him.

Man, his eyes are _green_. And he is absolutely _covered_ in freckles.

“Hi, do you have any sunflowers? I know they’re out of season, but my daughter-in-law just had a baby, and they’re her favourite. I’m happy to pay extra.”

The man leans back in his chair and eyes Benny appreciatively. He’s not being at all subtle about it.

“You look a bit young to be a granddad.”

“The perks of having a baby in high school.”

“Hmm,” the man replies, eyebrow arched as he crosses his arms across his chest. “Well sorry man, I don’t actually don’t work here. I’m loitering; so no clue about the sunflowers.”

“Dean!” A voice calls from behind a door to the man’s right, just before another man with blue eyes, arms overladen with perfectly wrapped bouquets of daisies. He sets them on the counter in front of the first man and says, “Stop being annoying and go home.”

The first man, _Dean_ , says, “You know you love me.”

The blue-eyed man rolls his eyes dramatically before turning to Benny with a bright smile. 

“Welcome to _What’s Up, Buttercup_. Is there anything I can help you with today, sir?”

Benny nods his head stupidly for a moment before he realises he has to speak. 

“Ah, yes, I was wondering if you had any sunflowers?”

The man nods his head and jerks it to the side to indicate that he wants Benny to follow him. He leads Benny to a refrigerator filled with buckets of loose flowers and wrapped bouquets. Inside sit three premade bouquets that all include sunflowers; one with dark pink roses, another with daisies and the last with irises.

“For someone special?” The blue-eyed man asks as Benny’s trying to decide if he wants the bouquet with the roses, all the flowers in the bucket, or everything.

“My daughter-in-law had a baby. Eesa loves sunflowers.” 

When Benny looks up, he realises there’s a shelf of new baby hampers in a range of colours and sizes. The yellow one is the one that catches his eyes, there’s a ginormous stuffed bee inside, and a fluffy yellow duck and Benny loves them both.

“Me too!” Dean calls from behind the counter. 

The blue-eyed man shoots him a look before turning back to Benny.

“Uh…” Benny starts when he’s finally made a decision. ‘I think I’ll take the one with the roses and the rest of the loose flowers. Also the yellow hamper up there. Do you sell vases?’

The blue-eyed man chuckles and nods his head, opening the fridge doors and reaching in for the bouquet and the bucket. He takes them over to the counter and Benny follows. When he places the flowers on the counter he turns to Dean with a raised eyebrow. 

“Make yourself useful and go get the yellow hamper off the shelf.” he says.

Dean does as asked, climbing off the stool and circling the desk.

Benny ends up buying more roses to even out the sunflowers and a large vase to fit them all in, which the blue-eyed man decorates with a burlap bow. When he’s paid the man offers to help Benny take everything out to his truck.

“I’ll do it,” Dean says with a grin.

“Don’t be annoying, Dean, he won’t want to come back.”

Benny gladly allows Dean to help him carry his purchases out to the truck and put them in the passenger seat. 

“Thank you. I’m Benny.”

Dean grins brightly at Benny and leans against the side of Benny’s truck with his arms crossed over his chest. His eyes are greener in the sun and they remind Benny of the trees in the swamp near his childhood home. His freckles are starker, too, and a voice in the back of Benny’s head wonders if the freckles are on his shoulders and arms, also. 

“You are unnaturally pretty,” Benny finally blurts after a silence that goes on just a moment too long.

Dean gives a full bellied laugh at that and says, “One of the nicest comments I’ve ever received.”

“Sorry, I-”

Dean sucks his teeth, mouth still pulled into a wide grin. 

“Don’t be.” 

Dean looks like he’s considering something, but when he opens his mouth to speak, his phone begins to ring. 

“Oh shit, I gotta go. See you around Benny.”

Benny watches as Dean disappears down an alleyway, speaking into his phone.

-*-*-*-*-*-

Two

-*-*-*-*-*-

About a week later Benny’s truck starts making some very not good sounds; a rattling and a screeching, before overheating twice. She’s an old girl, and more than slightly beat up. He figures out pretty quickly the cause was probably driving her from Louisiana to Colorado with a fridge, a washing machine, and a dryer in her truck bed. He’d tried to fix her up himself which had worked pretty well for him so far, but she’d been stubborn, and he’d been left to find the nearest garage.

 _Singer Auto Shop and Salvage_ is on a huge lot at the edge of town, ten minutes from Benny’s apartment. Benny’s truck _just_ makes it to the parking lot before overheating and spluttering to a stop, smoke curling from the hood.

The smoke is new.

He climbs out of the truck, and pulls the keys from the ignition before leaving her where she is to go in search of the garage’s office. He finds it in a part of the building that seems to be all windows. It’s cooler inside despite the sun beating in through the glass. Benny takes a proper look at the space. There’s a couple couches, and a few armchairs, a coffee table littered with magazines, and a mini-fridge. There’s also a table against the window with a coffee machine, a bowl of fruit, and a basket of food packets that Benny can’t identify from this distance.

There’s a desk close to the back wall and when Benny gets nearer he realises he recognises the person sitting behind it. Dean is sitting on a swivel chair with his feet kicked up on the desk, reading a book. Benny turns his head to read the title on the cover: _The Girl With All The Gifts_. Benny’s seen the movie, but he hadn’t realised it was a book first.

Dean looks up from his book when he realises Benny’s there and smiles. He puts the book- open and spine up- down on the desk, and settles his feet on the floor. 

“Hey! Benny, right?”

Benny smiles at Dean and says, “Yeah.”

“How did the flowers go down with your daughter?” Dean asks. “Oh, and the baby: appallingly adorable? I love babies, my friends have a few of them. They’re so squishy.”

Benny laughs and leans up against the counter, arms across his chest. 

“My daughter-in-law ended up drying them to put in a shadow box, which I don’t really understand but it makes her happy, so…” Benny shrugs his shoulders, then laughs again and says, “Elizabeth - my granddaughter - she’s not so much… squishy as she is… lanky. She came out a bit skinny, and she lost more weight after she was born - the doctors said it was normal. She’s starting to put on weight again, and she’s getting a bit chubby in the cheeks.” 

This isn’t the first time he’s gushed about Elizabeth to a virtual stranger. His cheeks go hot. 

“Sorry.” Benny apologises.

Dean laughs. “Don’t be. But if you’re going to keep going at least show me a picture.” He frowns then and goes silent for a second before he finally says, “If that’s not weird? Sorry, I didn’t think about how that might sound.”

It’s Benny‘s turn to laugh again. “Maybe a little, but I’ll show you anyway.” He takes out his phone and finds a picture (one of Elizabeth in his arms taken the afternoon before, with him smiling stupidly up at the camera) and hands it over to Dean.

“Holy shit, that kid has a lot of hair,” Dean says with an incredulous chuckle, a sweet smile on his face as he stares down at the picture on Benny’s phone before handing it back. “That’s a pretty cute baby. Some newborns look a bit like goblins, most of my nieces and nephews did, except Claire, she came out chubby with blonde curls and big blue eyes.

“How many nieces and nephews do you have?”

Dean tilts his head to the side and thinks about it for a second. 

“Not all of them are blood related, but… eleven? And one on the way.”

“That is a lot,” Benny replies with a short laugh. “None of your own?”

Dean looks a little sad then, but also almost… resigned? “Emma, she’s sixteen.” He looks like he has absolutely no desire to have this particular conversation so Benny drops it.

“I did actually come here for a reason,” Benny says, steering the conversation in another direction. “My truck’s fucked. Well, I mean she’s probably not completely fucked, but she’s definitely not great.”

“So…” Dean starts, standing up from the chair. “I don’t actually work here either, but I can go get my dad, hang on.”

Benny nods and watches Dean disappear through a door to their right. He’s not gone for very long, no more than a minute, and when he returns he’s followed by an older man with a grey beard and a trucker cap. He introduces himself as Bobby and asks Benny to explain the problem. Benny does, and Bobby writes it all down in a notepad.

“I’ll go get the papers for you to sign. Dean, help him pull the truck into the garage.”

Dean salutes his father and leads Benny out of the building. When they get to Benny’s truckBenny opens her up again and leans in to take off the safety brake. 

As they’re pushing the truck into a free spot in the garage, Benny says, 

“You know, this is the second time I’ve seen you behind the desk at a business you don’t actually work at.”

Dean laughs and says, “I like to loiter, annoy my friends and family until they kick me out. They always let me come back though.” He shrugs his shoulders. 

They pull the truck to a stop and Benny leans back inside to put the brake back on.

“I always visit someone after work, usually to see if they want to have lunch before I go home and pass out.”

Benny’s about to ask Dean where he works and what he means by ‘pass out’ when Bobby appears with papers for Benny to sign. Dean excuses himself before Benny’s finished, and Benny watches him leave out of the corner of his eye.

-*-*-*-*-*-

Three

-*-*-*-*-*-

Benny spends one of his days off taking care of Elizabeth, so Lou and Eesa can get some things done that they normally wouldn’t be able to do. She’s amazing all day (Lou was never this good as a baby) but Benny’s still left exhausted. He forgot how hard it was taking care of a baby. Lou had offered to make Benny dinner to thank him for it, or at least call for delivery, but Benny had just kissed their head, then Eesa’s, then Elizabeth’s, telling them there were leftovers in his fridge waiting for him.

Except when he gets home and looks in the fridge the leftovers are gone, and he vaguely remembers eating them the night before. He could make something easy - bacon and eggs or a sandwich maybe - but he’s so tired he’s sure he doesn’t have the energy for it. He’s starving, so a packet of something isn’t going to work for him. He remembers the Roadhouse at the edge of town, not too far from the garage. He changes his shirt so he doesn’t smell like baby vomit and heads out.

It’s a Friday night, so he’s surprised to find the place almost dead, with only a few patrons at the bar; a table of older ladies, and a family. It takes him a second to remember all the posters around town for the local high school’s championship football game, he’s fairly certain that would explain the quiet of tonight.

Dean’s standing behind the bar, next to a younger woman with blonde hair and dark eyeshadow, pouring a beer that he then lifts to his lips.

“Drinking on the job?” Benny asks as he sits at the counter in front of Dean.

Dean looks over at Benny’s voice and grins. “Best time to drink. However, I don’t actually work here either, I’m just helping myself.

“Ah, a recurring theme,” Benny jokes.

Dean grins brighter. “This is my mom’s place. Well… adoptive mom, it’s complicated.”

“Isn’t it always?”

Dean lets out a startled laugh. “Ain’t that the truth.” He sets his beer on the counter next to Benny and says, “What are you having? On me.”

“Thank you. Coke, I don’t drink.”

Dean nods, and reaches under the counter for a glass. He fills it with ice and reaches for one of the taps.

“Dean Winchester, helping yourself are we?” An older woman with dark hair greying at the scalp and the strongest _scolding mom_ look Benny’s ever seen on her face appears from a swing door. She looks at Dean with her hands on her hips.

Dean grins brightly at the woman and replies: 

“I’ve already helped myself, this one’s for Benny here.”

The woman’s eyes flicker to Benny before flicking back to Dean. 

“Get out from behind the bar once you’re done, boy.”

Dean salutes her, and fills Benny’s glass leaving it in front of him, as he circles the bar to take the stool next to him. 

“Can I get you something to eat, sweetheart?” The woman asks Benny. “You look dead on your feet.”

Benny gives her an appreciative smile. 

“Thank you. I don’t mind what it is, as long as it doesn’t have soy in it.”

Dean’s mom nods. “You anaphylactic?” She asks, “Just so I can let the kitchen know to re-clean everything first.”

Benny nods. “Yeah, I am. Thank you.”

She smiles and disappears back through the swinging door, leaving Benny and Dean alone. Benny takes a sip of his Coke and is about to say something to Dean (though he hasn’t decided what yet) when Dean speaks first.

“Ellen and Bobby took me and my brothers in when we were kids. My mom died when I was four and my younger brother was six months. My other brother, his mom died when I was fifteen. My dad just kinda… fucked off after that. Ellen and Bobby are the only parents we’ve ever known and the best we’ve ever had.” Dean takes a gulp of his beer and grimaces. “Sorry for the overshare.”

“Don’t be. I’m sorry about your birth parents.”

Dean shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t remember my mom and I try to forget my dad.”

Benny recognises the look on Dean’s face - the sadness and the loathing - he remembers it vividly on his own as a teenager. “I know what you mean.”

Dean nods, then shakes his head, as if he’s shaking the thoughts away, then says, “Do you have any siblings?”

Benny shakes his own head. “Nope, it’s just me and my kids.”

“Remind me how many you have?”

“Lou’s my biological kid, Eesa’s their wife and you know about my granddaughter. They’re all my kids,” Benny says.

Dean nods his head looking contemplative. “Eesa… I think I know her. She’s Muslim right?”

“Yeah that’s her.” Benny smiles fondly at the thought of her.

“You moved to town for them?” Dean asks, interrupting Benny’s thoughts. Benny nods. “Your… biological kid, are they - sorry I gotta ask or I’m gonna get confused, are their pronouns ‘they’ or were you just using it as a general term?”

“Yeah, Lou’s non-binary. They/them.”

“Awesome. So Lou, are they Muslim too? I’m not all that familiar with Islam, is it like Judaism? Do they convert?” Dean asks, elbow propped up on the bar, chin resting on his hand, looking genuinely curious.

“Not necessarily. I think as long as you’re one of the ‘five faiths’ and bring your children up as Muslim it’s all fine.” Benny replies, shrugging his shoulders. “But no, Lou isn’t Muslim. They were atheist when they and Eesa married, now they’re pagan. I don’t really understand how it works. They have a… tutelary? A tutelary deity. I think it’s like a patron or something?”

Dean laughs. “Don’t look at me. I know less about it than you do.”

“So, no, Lou didn’t convert to Islam, and isn’t one of the ‘five faiths’, which is one of the reasons - other than being non-binary - that Eesa’s parents hated them so much.” Benny replies, shrugging his shoulders. “Their loss really, my kids are pretty amazing.” 

He takes a sip of his drink and then says, 

“Your brothers, what are they like?”

“Damn smart, smarter than me. Sam’s a litigation lawyer and Adam’s a nurse like his mom. He works in the paediatric ward at the hospital.” Dean finishes the last of his beer and checks his watch. “I’ve gotta get home to bed. See you around, Benny.”

Benny watches him leave and checks his own watch when he’s gone to see that it’s not long past eight. He files _goes to bed early_ and his last name, Winchester, under the growing list of things he’s discovering about Dean. Ellen brings him a plate of lamb chops, mash potato and roast vegetables, and Benny eats it with all the fervour of a starving man, before paying, driving himself home, and passing out in bed.

-*-*-*-*-*-

Four

-*-*-*-*-*-

Benny’s phone dies as he’s trying to call his manager to talk about his current project. The screen turns black and it won’t turn back on no matter what he does.

He opens up his laptop and checks online for a computer and phone repair shop. He'd much rather pay for it to be fixed than buy a new one. There’s one on the far side of town, only one, and as far as Benny can tell, it’s run out of the owner’s home. He feels weird about showing up at someone’s house without calling first, but seeing as how he literally can’t call ahead, he’s going to have to.

He jumps into his truck and finds his way to the shop using the hastily written directions he found online. He finds himself at a two storey house with a grey-blue exterior and white shutters. Most of the front garden is a beautiful mess of flowers and trees and bushes that reminds him of his mother’s garden. The garden has a tiny stretch of lawn in the middle. A sign stands on the lawn that says _Keys to Happiness Repair_ with a little drawing of three keyboard keys (a colon, a dash and a bracket) looking like a smiling face. It directs him around the side of the house to a door of a large studio out the back.

He knocks on it and it’s answered by a redheaded woman wearing a _Charlie’s Angels_ t-shirt. She frowns at him and he rushes to say, 

“Sorry, I should’ve called first, but it’s my phone that’s broken, and I don’t have a landline.”

The woman raises an eyebrow at him.. 

“I have a Facebook page, you could’ve messaged me there.”

Benny grimaces and replies, “I honestly didn’t think of that.”

The woman eyes Benny for a second and it occurs to him that a random man has just shown up on her doorstep without calling first, it’s no wonder she’s suspicious. He wonders if he’ll make it better or worse if he blurts out that he’s Kinsey-6 gay. He doesn’t get a chance, though, because she jerks her head to let him know he can follow her inside. She leads him into a room filled with shelving. Shelves are covered in laptops, computers, phones, tablets and parts. A large work table and a couch in front of a large television in the corner.

“What’s the problem, then?” She asks, holding her hand out for Benny’s phone.

“It turned off and it won’t turn back on again. I’ve tried the on button, it was on charge for hours, I can’t make it do anything,” he tells her, handing the phone over and watching her turn it over in her hands.

She takes his phone to her table and plugs it into something, humming thoughtfully when numbers appear on the screen. She opens her mouth to say something when the door bursts open and a familiar voice yells into the room.

“I got KFC, and I went all the way to Fort Collins for it, so me and you are playing _Witcher_.” Dean is standing in the doorway with three paper bags and a huge grin, which only widens when he sees Benny. 

“Hey, Benny!”

“Hey, Dean.” 

“You guys know each other?” The woman asks, blinking between the two men, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

Dean nods and says, “Yeah, Benny’s the guy I was telling you about.”

The woman raises an eyebrow and very obviously checks out Benny’s ass. It occurs to Benny that the only reason she’s checked out his ass is probably because Dean’s been talking about it. The thought makes him flush. 

“Right, Benny,” she says, slowly drawing out his name. “Anyway, I think your LCD is disconnected, give me a couple minutes to take it apart. I’m sure you two can entertain each other for a few minutes.”

Benny wanders over to Dean, who sets the food on the coffee table and collapses onto the couch. 

“Did you seriously tell your friend about my ass?” He asks with a chuckle and a raised eyebrow, sitting on the arm of the chair next to Dean.

Dean grins sharply and replies, “You do have a fantastic ass.”

“Do you make a habit out of watching my ass as I walk away?”

“Oh yeah, definitely,” Dean replies, reaching into one of the paper bags for a box of fries, taking a couple out before holding it out to Benny.

“KFC usually uses soy products in their foods, but thank you.”

“Right, allergy. Anyway, I was talking about your ass,” Dean replies, nodding his head. He shoves the fries into his mouth before reaching for more. Once he’s chewed it and swallowed, he says, “Were you just blessed with an amazing ass?”

A laugh bursts from Benny. “Is this your subtle way of asking if I work out?”

“I’m never subtle,” Dean replies, very seriously.

“That much is obvious.” Benny grins at the other man and thinks very seriously about what it might be like to kiss Dean. Dean smirks at him like he knows exactly what Benny is thinking, and Benny goes red. He wonders if he should ask Dean for his number.

“Hey,” the redhead says, catching Dean and Benny’s attention. “I was right, the LCD disconnected. I’ve put it back in and the screens back on.”

“You are amazing,” Benny says, standing up from the arm of the couch and accepting his phone gratefully. “Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.” The woman smiles and shrugs her shoulders. “How much do I owe you?”

“Forty-five.”

Benny pays and Dean offers to walk him out to his truck, which earns them a cheeky smirk from the redheaded woman.

“Ignore her, she thinks being my best friend gives her licence to be a shit about people I like.”

“Oh it absolutely does,” Benny says before the rest of the sentence has sunk into his brain. He opens the driver’s-side door and leans against it, bracing his arms on it. “You like me, huh?”

“I guess, don’t let it go to your head,” Dean says with a smile.

“Never,” Benny replies with a snort. He’s about to reply when his phone starts ringing, his manager’s number visible on the screen. Benny has no doubt she got bored of no word from him all day and has been calling him every five minutes for at least the last hour. He really should’ve emailed her. “Shit, I’m sorry, I have to go.”

Dean nods, smiling at Benny, as Benny climbs into the truck.

Benny spends most of the drive home kicking himself for not getting Dean’s number, rather than listening to Rowena.

-*-*-*-*-*-

Five

-*-*-*-*-*-

Benny’s tooth chips when he accidentally headbutts Eesa while they’re both leaning into Elizabeth’s cot. Benny finds the situation alone infinitely hilarious, to think the human body can withstand childbirth and car accidents, and he chips his tooth bumping his head against someone else’s. It’s only made better by the broad, toothless smile that forms on Elizabeth’s face when Benny yelps in pain. It’s the first time she’s smiled, and Benny can’t get over the fact it was because he’d hurt himself. It’s quite possibly the funniest thing that’s ever happened to Benny.

It becomes less funny when he realises he can’t eat without his tooth throbbing (not by much, it’s still hilarious) and he has to find a dentist and make an emergency appointment. There’s a place a few streets down, a small office with only one dentist. Though they’re full up, the receptionist, Bess, talks to the dentist, who agrees to fit him in during his lunch hour. Benny feels bad, but Bess assuages his guilt by reminding him how painful it’ll continue to be the longer he leaves it.

He heads into the office at half twelve, letting himself into an empty waiting room. When he reaches the counter he’s expecting to find the woman he spoke to on the phone. Instead, Dean is sitting with a phone to his ear, writing something in a book on the surface of the desk in front of him. Benny steps up to the counter and braces his arms against the surface while he waits for Dean to finish the phone call.

When Dean hangs up he closes the book in front of him and looks up at Benny, smiling widely at him. “Benny, hey! I know what it looks like, but I don’t actually work here either.”

Benny laughs. “Am I ever going to see you at your actual job?”

Dean stands up from his seat and braces his hands on the desk, leaning closer to Benny. Benny’s heart kicks in his chest. 

“We’ll see,” Dean says, 

Wow, yeah, okay, that is a very flirty smile and he is definitely doing it on purpose. 

It’s making Benny feel hot all over. 

“I came over to take Bess and Garth out for lunch, but alas, some dude made an emergency appointment during their lunch break. You alright?”

“Fine,” Benny replies, shrugging his shoulders. “I chipped my tooth. It’s actually a hilarious story, Eesa head-butted me and my teeth clacked together, and now I have a broken tooth.”

Dean laughs, shaking his head. “Yeah, okay, that’s pretty funny.”

“Less hilarious cause it hurts like hell,” Benny shrugs, opening his mouth and pulling his lip to the side so he can show Dean the chipped canine.

“Ouch.”

Benny nods his head, closing his mouth again. “Is Bess here? She said I needed to sign something when I got here.”

“She had to use the bathroom, she’ll be back in a bit,” Dean replies. “Hey, you know, I don’t know where you work either. You’re always free when I am.”

Benny shrugs his shoulders and says, “Maybe I’ll tell you when I find out where you work too.”

Dean laughs, eyes bright and grin sharp, then says, “Well, if you make me wait that long, I’ll make you wait that long for my phone number.”

Benny makes a face at Dean then, something akin to a pout with sad, puppy-dog eyes, and says, “Well that’s not fair, what if I never figure it out?”

“You will. There’s not a lot of town, you’ll find me eventually.” Dean smiles gently at Benny and Benny’s heart kicks in his chest again.

“Can I have a clue, at least?” Benny asks, propping his chin up with his hand.

Dean thinks for a long moment then nods his head and asks, “Do you like cake?”

Before Benny can reply, a blonde woman with a pregnant belly and a cup of tea is pushing past Dean and sitting down in the swivel chair Dean had just occupied. 

“If you’re going to flirt, do it somewhere else,” she tells them with a sharp, teasing grin. 

She reaches into a drawer and pulls a sheet of paper from inside a file. She attaches it to a clipboard and hands it to Benny. 

“Garth is just finishing up with his last patient, he should be done once you’ve finished the form.”

“Thanks,” Benny replies with a kind smile turned in her direction, taking the clipboard and a pen and turning to Dean. “Cake?” He asks.

“Ask Eesa,” Dean says with a grin before turning back to Bess. “I’m out, tell Garth I said “Hi”. See you later Benny.”

Benny raises an eyebrow at Dean before watching him leave. Sitting on one of the chairs with the clipboard, he writes his information down and takes it back to Bess just as Garth is calling him in. Garth puts a cap on his tooth and gives him mild painkillers before sending him on his way.

-*-*-*-*-*-

Plus One

-*-*-*-*-*-

Benny asks Eesa about Dean, but she seems to be in on it too. She refuses to say anything to him until the day before Lou’s birthday. She asks him to get Lou’s birthday cake from a bakery near their house before he gets to their house for Lou’s birthday lunch. The mention of cake reminds Benny of Dean’s comment a fortnight earlier. The grin on Eesa’s face makes it clear she’s well aware of what she’s doing.

He arrives at the bakery just before eleven on Lou’s birthday. The place smells amazing - like fresh bread, apples, caramel and chocolate chip cookies - and Benny’s so mad he’s never found this place before. He’s pretty sure he wants to live here.

There’s a teenage boy at the counter, no more than eighteen, with blonde hair and blue eyes, who looks disturbingly like Castiel the florist, and must be one of the kids Dean mentioned. Benny approaches him and the counter and says, 

“Hey, I think I’m here to pick up an order?”

The teenager smiles at Benny. “Sure, under what name?”

“Lafitte.” 

The teenager nods his head and says, “Give me a second,” before disappearing through a door into the back. Benny studies the pastries and breads in the cases at the counter while he waits, wondering what the chocolate and Canadian bacon cupcakes taste like. He’s thinking about buying some of them when the teenager returns with a strange confused look on his face. 

“He told me to send you in the back.”

Benny frowns, but he goes where the teenager sends him, through the door the boy took. He finds himself in a large industrial kitchen that smells like flour and strawberries. There’s someone leaning into the fridge across the room, a man with an apron, clothes covered in ingredients, and Benny doesn’t need to see his face to realise it’s Dean. 

“Hey, Dean.”

Dean climbs out of the huge fridge with a boxed cake in his hands which he sets on an unoccupied stretch of the stainless steel countertop. He leans his hip against the counter and crosses his arms over his chest, a broad grin on his face. “I do actually work here this time. Which means you are contractually obliged to finally tell me where _you_ work.”

“Well I mean, you were answering the phone at the dentist and helping yourself at your mom’s bar, how do I know you aren’t just helping yourself here?” Benny asks with a cheeky smirk, which earns him a roll of Dean’s eyes. “Alright. Are you ready for this one? You know the TV show Bloodlines?”

“The one with Sissy Spacek? No, wait, that’s ‘Bloodline’, no ‘s’. The one about the Vampire pirates? Don’t tell me you work on it.”

Benny laughs at the confused look on Dean’s face and says, “Worse. I wrote the book series it’s based on.”

The look on Dean’s face is priceless. He looks like an excited kid on Christmas, eyes wide and grin huge. “I’m totally buying those books now. Is it as porny as the show?”

Benny laughs again, louder, throwing his head back. Of course that’s the first thing Dean asks. “It is so much worse. I wrote the first one in ‘92 when I was eighteen, it was basically eighty percent porn until I finally got an editor in ‘95 who convinced me to cut some of it out.”

“No,” Dean says, drawing out the ‘o’, mouth turned down into a dramatic pout. “What a spoilsport.”

Benny shrugs. “It probably wouldn’t have done as well without the plot he made me put in. It would've sat on the bodice-ripper shelf if I’d even managed to get it published. It was _so_ queer,” he says, laughing. “All the other publishers, editors and managers I spoke to before the team I had in the 90’s tried to tell me pirates weren’t queer - which is a load of shit.”

Dean’s mouth is turned up in an amused and fond smile and he covers it with his fingers. “You’re awesome, seriously. Who the hell are you?”

And because Benny is either a genius, or seriously stupid, and about to make a very bad impression, he says, with his mouth tilted up in one corner, “I dunno, the guy you’re having a lunch date with on Friday, maybe?”

The top of Dean’s cheeks flush red and he’s grinning stupidly behind his fingers. “Yeah, maybe.”

Benny’s pretty sure he’s smiling just as stupidly as he swaps phone numbers with Dean, before he’s taking Lou’s cake. He’s still smiling when he gets to Lou and Eesa’s place, and Eesa’s definitely told Lou because they both rib the fuck out of him. He doesn’t even care. He’s so damned happy he thinks he might burst with it.


End file.
